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Thursday, June 30, 2011

Is it wrong that this picture doesn't make me squeamish just a bit hungry?

Christina from my facebook page anointed them Princess Pie Guts pops and I kinda had to agree with her from this photo. It looked a bit gruesome. Well mostly Yummy but a teensy bit gruesome.

To make them I made a batch of cherry pie pops and then decorated them with fondant. You can buy fondant at cake shops, some supermarkets or make your own marshmallow fondant using this recipe (click here).

First I cut out the pink crowns by hand the day before using a sharp knife, decorating them and laying them out on parchment paper to dry overnight.

Then I cut out the yellow hair by rolling out the fondant thinly and pressing a round cutter down just at the top point, I didn't press it all the way through. it just gave me the impression of the rounded top and then I used the sharp knife to cut around and flicked out at the bottom to make the bobbed hair. This was then pressed onto the pie pop using the tiniest amount of water.

Then I added a couple of eyes, you can use premade eyes or make some yourself with white and black fondant or royal icing. I made my own with fondant and while I was at it I rolled some of the black fondant very thinly and made eyelashes.

I used a little bit of red fondant to make the mouth, I just pinched it into a mouth like shape and the I rolled small amounts of flesh coloured fondant into a small nose.

I mixed up a tiny amount of royal icing using premix (you can get this at woolies now) and stuck the eyes, nose, mouth, crown (which was now stiff after drying overnight) and a couple of little premade flowers I had sitting around.

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

I've had these in mind for a while now....probably coming up to 12 months just after I missed the boat last year.
They're decorated on both sides....in different designs, which is a pretty cool idea if I do say so myself.

Also not as tricky as it seems.

and just to put some ideas into your head while your whipping some up you could use these fondant pinwheels to decorate anything. Cakes, cake pops, pies (my latest obsession). Yes if you can eat it you can pretty much stick one of these twirly whirly babies on it.

Plus you can make them any pattern you like, and if your not really into the whole double sided fondant thing you could just decorate one square of fondant with some edible food writers and draw on any design you wanted.

But before I get into the how to make these sweet pinwheels I have to say my camera is driving me CRAZY. I must buy a proper one so that I can get some lovely shots for you all. I may have mentioned it before but I am completely hopeless when it comes to anything remotely technical so ANY suggestions would be most welcome.

Oh and those cute 'ole stripy sticks holding up the pinwheel cookies are actually paper straws cut to size and popped over the top of the paper lollipop sticks.

Roll out the white fondant as thinly as you can and cut out square shape. Working quickly roll out the red fondant as thinly as you can and cut out square shape. Use the pizza cutter to cut the square into thin red stripes.

Using a tiny amount of water adhere the red stripes onto the white fondant square leaving an even amount of white showing between each red stripe. Gently roll over the top of the red and white stripe fondant with the rolling pin. Place the fondant square stripe side down on the parchment paper.

Still working quickly roll our the blue fondant as thinly as possible and cut out a square shape, use a small amount of water to adhere the blue square to the back of the red and white stripe square (ie the all white side).

Roll out some more white fondant and using the small star ejector cutter cut out enough stars to place on the blue fondant, use a little water to adhere if necessary.

Gently roll over the top of the blue and white star fondant square with the rolling pin. Use the sharpe knife to even up the edges and ensure the red and white stripe side and blue and white star side are flush and even, discard any excess fondant.

Using the sharp knife cut from the edge of each corner towards the middle slicing through both layers of fondant. Leave an area about 1cm (1/2inch) in diameter in the center that you do not cut through.

Take one of the corners of fondant and carefully pull it down towards the center, looping the fondant over, repeat for remaining 3 corners ensuring that the loops all go in the same direction.

Break off small sections of plastic wrap and scrunch into small balls to stick inside the pinwheel loops while the fondant dries. Leave a day or so until set.

Saturday, June 18, 2011

I've been working on a pretty huge project for someone else for a couple of months which I just finished last weekend. So I planned on having a rejuvenating me week and easing myself back into the blog, maybe a catch up of some of the fabulous things I have been lucky enough to work on in my spare time, but no baking, no siree, I had moved my kitchen aid off the bench which is code in this house for baking hiatus.

I was feeling kinda creativity sapped....nothing left. But then it happened, 2 days into my week of me I had a stray thought that I had never seen a decorated pie pop and wondered why.

It just wouldn't leave me alone, I couldn't wait. Those decorated pies kept calling me, so at 2am that morning I found myself up and baking a batch of cherry pie pops so they would be ready for decorating the next day. Yup Really 2am in the morning! At the time it seemed like the only sensible thing to do.

and here is my sneaking out in the middle of the night results. Pirate pie pops. The kids are wrapped in this new creation so I'm calling it a success and have already started on more.

and they're easy as pie.....here's how I decorated them.

Shiver me Timbers Pirate Pie Pops

Ingredients

Baked and cooled pie pops (6 to 7 cm or 3 inches)
Red Marshmallow/Ready to Roll Fondant
Black Marshmallow/ Ready to Roll fondant (or black royal icing)
White Royal icing (I used premix royal icing powder mixed with a tiny amount of water so that it was stiff)
Round cutter
Sharp knife
small rolling pin
10 ready made eyes (or make your own from fondant)

Roll out the red fondant until a couple of millimeters (1/8th inch) thick and cut out a round with the cutter.

Cut a straight line across it 3.5cm (1 3/8 inch) from the top to make the bandana. Then cut 2 thin long triangle to look like the bandana's knot/tie. Press the half circle onto the top of the pie and the 2 triangles at one side with the larger ends touching the edge of the half circle 'bandana'.Take a small piece of black fondant and roll it out like a long log to make a thin strap about 5cm (2inch) long. Press it onto the pie starting about halfway across the head and draping down to the side to look like the strap of an eye patch. Roll another small piece of black fondant into a small ball and then press flat to make an eye patch, stick onto the pirate head pie across the strap where the eye should be. Roll another small piece of black fondant into a thin log about 2.5cm (1inch) long and shape into a smile, press on where the pirate pie's mouth should be. (Alternately you can do all this black fondant work with some black royal icing.)

Pop the white royal icing into a small ziplock bag and cut a tiny hole in the corner to make an easy disposable piping bag. Using the royal icing stick the premade eye into place and then pipe lots of tiny dots onto the red fondant bandana to appear like polka dots.

Allow to dry and once set you can eat straight away of store in an airtight container for a couple of days.